There is a long tradition on Savile Row of the suit that says something without saying very much at all: a regimental stripe. A club colour worked quietly into a lining. A monogram placed where only the wearer will ever see it. The garment carries the story; the man carries the garment. This season, that tradition found a new home in west London.
Huntsman's Head Cutter and Creative Director, Campbell Carey, has created a bespoke two-piece suit for Igor Thiago, Brentford F.C. striker whose goalscoring has made him one of the most talked-about players in the Premier League. The commission began with a physical object rather than an idea: his Brentford shirt, and its bold red and white vertical stripes.
The challenge was one of translation. A football shirt announces itself from a hundred yards; a suit should not. The suit was conceived as an elegant, classic pinstripe, a refined interpretation of the striped jersey, to create a garment that sat within the language of Savile Row: a quintessentially British cloth, in an exquisitely cut suit.
But this commission had to make more of a statement, and the details are where this suit speaks volumes. The name THIAGO and the number 9 were carefully removed from his jersey and applied to the back of the garment, a detail only realised when seen from behind.
And then there is the lining. Rather than a conventional silk, the house took the shirt itself. Thiago's own jersey was cut and set into the interior of the coat, badge and all, so that the club sits against the wearer's back every time he puts the suit on. It is a lining few will ever see. That is rather the point. The pleasures of bespoke tailoring are almost always private ones: the unexpected colour under the collar, the name in the inside pocket, the small tokens shared between a man and his tailoring. Here, an entire career has been folded into the same place.
Cut in the Huntsman silhouette, the single-button coat, with a high armhole and clean, elongated line, the suit does what the best bespoke does: it belongs to one person and no one else.
The suit also draws inspiration from Kingsman, whose distinctive tailoring and cinematic world informed the design of Brentford F.C.’s new away kit. As both the inspiration behind and spiritual home of Kingsman, Huntsman provided a natural starting point for the commission. The resulting suit brings the story full circle, connecting Brentford’s contemporary interpretation of the Kingsman aesthetic with the Savile Row house that first inspired it.
Football kits and Savile Row tailoring are not such distant relatives. Both are uniforms. Both are made to be recognised. Both mean far more to the people who wear them than the cloth alone can explain.
Every Huntsman commission begins with a conversation. To discuss yours, book an appointment at 11 Savile Row.